ehwaz

{{Short description|Elder Futhark rune}}

{{More sources needed|date=December 2009}}

{{Infobox rune

| lang1 = pg| lang2 = oe

| name1 = *Ehwaz

| name2 = E(o)h

| meaning12 = "horse"

| shape12 =File:Runic letter ehwaz.svg

| unicode hex12 =16D6

| transliteration12 =e

| transcription12 =e

| IPA12 = {{IPA|[e(ː)]}}

| position12 = 19

}}

{{Contains special characters|Runic}}

{{lang|gem-x-proto|*Ehwaz}} is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the Elder Futhark e rune {{Runic|ᛖ}}, meaning "horse" (cognate to Latin {{lang|la|equus}}, Gaulish {{lang|xtg|epos}}, Tocharian B {{lang|txb|yakwe}}, Sanskrit {{transliteration|sa|aśva}}, Avestan {{transliteration|ae|aspa}} and Old Irish {{lang|sga|ech}}). In the Anglo-Saxon futhorc, it is continued as {{Runic|ᛖ}} {{lang|ang|eh}} (properly {{lang|ang|eoh}}, but spelled without the diphthong to avoid confusion with {{Runic|ᛇ}} {{lang|ang|ēoh}} "yew").

The Proto-Germanic vowel system was asymmetric and unstable. The difference between the long vowels expressed by {{Runic|ᛖ}} e and {{Runic|ᛇ}} ï (sometimes transcribed as {{lang|gem-x-proto|*ē₁}} and {{lang|gem-x-proto|*ē₂}}) was lost. The Younger Futhark continues neither, lacking a letter expressing e altogether. The Anglo-Saxon futhorc faithfully preserved all Elder futhorc staves, but assigned new sound values to the redundant ones, futhorc {{lang|ang|ēoh}} expressing a diphthong.

In the case of the Gothic alphabet, where the names of the runes were re-applied to letters derived from the Greek alphabet, the letter {{lang|got|𐌴}} e was named {{transliteration|got|aíƕus}} "horse" as well (note that in Gothic orthography, {{angbr|aí}} represents monophthongic /e/).

The rune may have been an original innovation, or it may have been adapted from the classical Latin alphabet's E,{{cn|date=May 2024}} or from the Greek alphabet's H.{{Citation | publisher = Uni Frankfurt | last = Gippert | first = Jost | url = http://titus.uni-frankfurt.de/didact/idg/germ/runealph.htm | title = The Development of Old Germanic Alphabets | access-date = 2007-03-21 | archive-date = 2021-02-25 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210225051327/http://titus.uni-frankfurt.de/didact/idg/germ/runealph.htm | url-status = live }}.